Construction on New Corporate Facilities to Begin This Year

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PeopleFund and Capital One Bank Team to Provide Financing for the new ACCION Texas Corporate Campus

Construction on New Corporate Facilities to Begin This Year

Austin, Texas – ACCION Texas will soon begin construction on it’s new corporate campus in San Antonio at 2015 West Martin Street. The new campus consists of three buildings. The centerpiece is a 13,100-square-foot headquarters facility complemented by a 1,897-square-foot Business Incubator Center, and a 1,400-square-foot Workshop and Training Building.

ACCION’s founding President & CEO, Janie Barrerra has spearheaded the project and initial fundraising since the announcement of a $5.5 million Capital Campaign in June of 2012. The Capital Campaign has initially been awarded a $1.3 million grant from the United States Economic Development Agency plus approximately $1.4 million in grants and gifts from other benefactors.

Although the Capital Campaign is off to a robust start, ACCION was still several million dollars short of its goals needed to begin construction. However, recognizing the community impact of the project and also the successful history of ACCION, PeopleFund and Capital One Bank were able to complete a creative financing solution that closed on December 30, 2013 to allow ACCION to immediately begin construction.

The financing included PeopleFund providing a $6.1 million New Market Tax Credit (NMTC) allocation to the project. Based on the allocation from PeopleFund, Capital One Bank through its Capital One Community Renewal Fund purchased the NMTC which results in net cash of approximately $1.7 million to ACCION. Capital One also provided a $3.5 million construction loan.

ACCION Founding President & CEO Janie Barrera was most gratified. “With our rapid growth, we have run out of space. Now we have funding in place to promptly build the entire campus as a single project. This is the boost we needed. We are grateful to PeopleFund for awarding its NMTC to us and to Capital One for providing construction financing to allow us time to complete our Capital Campaign. Now our goal will be to continue to raise funds under the Capital Campaign to quickly eliminate all of the construction debt so that we have a debt-free campus in as short a time period as possible.”

On Sept. 17, the three organizations committed to the project. According to PeopleFund President & CEO Gary Lindner, “We seek to place our NMTC credits in high impact non-profit community projects located in severely distressed census tracts.” Lindner, formerly ACCION Texas COO, continued, ”ACCION Texas is a great organization and a perfect fit for a NMTC investment”.

Capital One Austin Market President and Commercial Banking Executive Mike Perrine also played an essential and pivotal role to make this financial deal a reality. “New Market Tax Credits transactions represent an example of how federal resources and local know-how can work together to support revitalization of underserved areas,” said Perrine. “Capital One Bank has partnered with ACCION and PeopleFund on a number of their important community programs, and that makes this latest transaction even more special.”

PeopleFund

Peoplefund is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Established in 1994, it is a U.S. Treasury certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and SBA certified lender. PeopleFund provides business loans up to $250,000 to Texas businesses that lack access to traditional financing. It also provides clients business assistance and education. 89% of loans are to a target market of minority, women, and veteran business owners and those residing in low to moderate income census tracts. Over 50% of loans go to startup businesses and high social impact nonprofits. Through access to capital and education, PeopleFund creates economic opportunity and financial stability to build healthy small businesses.

Capital One

Capital One Financial Corporation ( is a financial holding company whose subsidiaries, which include Capital One, N.A., and Capital One Bank (USA), N.A., had $206.9 billion in deposits and $289.9 billion in total assets as of September 30, 2013. Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, Capital One offers a broad spectrum of financial products and services to consumers, small businesses and commercial clients through a variety of channels. Capital One, N.A. has more than 900 branch locations primarily in New York, New Jersey, Texas, Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. A Fortune 500 company, Capital One trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "COF" and is included in the S&P 100 index.

ACCION Texas

Since 1994, ACCION Texas, Inc. has provided credit and services to small businesses and entrepreneurs who do not have access to loans from commercial sources and provided leadership and innovation to the microlending industry. Serving as a key economic engine for the State of Texas, they have helped thousands of people achieve financial stability and growth they so richly deserve as a result of their vision and hard work by making over 14,061 loans totaling more than $152 million.